MEAD

The Mead-Lovers README file, revision 14

This text was written by John Dilley, Dick Dunn, Thomas Manteufel, and
Michael Tighe. The document is maintained by Dick Dunn.

This document is a list of basic information about mead and mead making for
the beginner. It is intended to get you started and answer your initial
questions about mead and mead making.

There is a mailing list about mead, the "Mead-Lover's Digest". To subscribe
or unsubscribe, send mail to mead-request@talisman.com. Please feel
free to post any questions you have after reading this document to the digest
at mead@talisman.com. For comments/suggestions/corrections to this
document, contact rcd@talisman.com

The History and Tradition of Mead

Mead is a honey-based fermented beverage that has been produced and enjoyed
since before the dawn of recorded history. Because of its antiquity, mead
has acquired an almost magical reputation in our mythologies. For example,
the term "honeymoon" is intertwined with the custom of drinking honey-based
mead for a month (moon) after the wedding; this practice was said to ensure
baby boys. Mead making was once the province of a select, trained guild.
Now, it is open to all who have the patience and skill. You are continuing
this long and honored tradition. Welcome aboard and enjoy.

The Types of Mead

Mead is classified not by the kind of honey that it is made of, but by what
else may have been added to it for flavoring.

Traditional mead is made with only honey, water, and yeast, plus
perhaps a small amount of acid (to balance the sweetness).

Metheglin is mead made with added herbs or spices, such as cloves
or cinnamon.

Melomel is mead made with the addition of fruit or fruit juice to
traditional mead. Melomel may also contain spices, as metheglin does.

Cyser is a melomel made with apples or apple juice.

Pyment is a melomel made with grapes or grape juice.

Hippocras is a spiced pyment.

Sack is a name (or an adjective) for stronger meads made with more
honey than usual.

Depending on the initial amount of honey, and how attenuative (effective at
fermenting sugars) the yeast is, the final mead may be dry or sweet. Sack
mead is usually sweet.

What Kinds of Honey?

There are many kinds of honey, based on which flowers the bees collected the
nectar from. Bees aren't loyal to any particular flower, so any characteri-
zation of honey as being from a particular source (for example, "blackberry
honey") can vary from absolutely true to a rough generality, depending on
what flowers the bees can find and how interesting they find them. Honeys
range in taste and color from the light clover through alfalfa to stronger
tasting (and darker) such as buckwheat. There are many unusual honeys to
be found where there are unusual local flowers. Which honey you will use
depends both on which you like the taste of, and what type of mead you are
trying to make. Stronger flavors go well in metheglins and heavier or
sweet meads, while the milder honeys make a good base for melomels or dry
traditional meads.

You can buy honey in bulk from roadside stands or health food stores. You
may be lucky enough to live near an apiary and be able to buy right from
the beekeeper. Look in the phone book for honey, health food, or beekeepers.
Sometimes, exterminators will remove hives, give the bees to beekeepers, and
sell the honey. University agriculture departments occasionally sell honey.
Be inventive. If all else fails, you may have to buy it from the grocery
store.

The honey will be either raw or processed in some way. Raw honey has bits of
wax, bee parts, dust, pollen, microorganisms, and the like in it. You have
the most control in how you process raw honey, but you also have the most to
do. Honey may be filtered, or blended, or even heat pasturized to make it
clearer and less likely to crystallize. The more processed it is, the milder
it is likely to be and the less character it will give to your mead.
Processing also evaporates some of the honey's aroma. Commercial, grocery
store honey is the most processed and is generally not a good choice for
meadmaking.

Crystallized honey is just fine for mead. In fact, it has two points in its
favor: First, it generally indicates less processing, since one of the
reasons for processing honey is to keep it from crystallizing. Second, it
may be cheaper because it's less appealing to the average consumer. To re-
liquefy crystallized honey so you can pour it, just heat it gently.

Adding Acid

Acid is added to the "must" (the honey water mixture you're going to
ferment) both to adjust the ph and to balance the sweet flavor of the
honey. Yeast love an acidic environment. Many other micro-organisms
don't. The acid you add protects the must until the alcohol level creates
a hostile environment for the competition.

Acid can be added in many forms. Winemaking suppliers sell acid blends,
powder or liquid. Acid is measured in "as tartaric", or how acidic the must
is compared to pure tartaric acid. For example, if the must is 0.5 percent
acid as tartaric, it is as acidic as if 0.5 percent of the must were pure
tartaric acid. Inexpensive test kits will let you measure the acidity so
that you can adjust it. Acid blends are a combination of tartaric, citric,
and malic acids. You may be able to get the individual acids used in blends.
Each contributes a slightly different taste in addition to acidity. The
natural acid in fruits and berries will also acidify the must, for which
reason melomels often need no additional acid.

How to Prepare the Must

The honey/water before fermenting is called must. You will
want to add the
honey to hot water in a large pot, but make sure the pot is not on the heat
while doing this because the honey will fall to the bottom and caramelize (or
stir vigorously if you leave it on the heat). Stainless steel or enameled
kettles are preferred.

Some mead recipes recommend only heating the must enough to pasteurize it.
This is because boiling mead will drive off some of the delicate honey
flavors. Refer to the recipes from the mead-lovers digest or the other
references (below).

If scum rises while heating or boiling the must, skim it off. It consists of
wax, bee parts, pollen, etc., which don't help the flavor of the mead.

An alternative preparation method involves the use of "Campden tablets" or
"sulfiting" to sterilize the must. If you're a winemaker, you'll recognize
this method. With the use of Campden tablets, it is not necessary to heat/
boil the must at all first, although some mead-makers do so anyway for the
sake of clarity of the final mead. If you use Campden tablets, follow a
recipe or instructions for quantity, preparation, delay times, etc. Heating
is probably easier than sulfiting for the beginning mead-maker.

Yeasts

Mead is more a wine than beer, with a final alcohol level anywhere between
10 and 18 percent. Wine yeasts, which have a higher alcohol tolerance, may
ferment slower at first (although some are remarkably fast) but will ferment
more completely than ale or lager yeast. They are also less likely to
produce "off" tastes which take a long time to age out after the mead is
finished. A partial list of some of the popular yeasts are:
Champagne (multiple strains), Epernay, Flor Sherry, Steinberg,
Prise De Mousse, Tokay, and various proprietary strains which are
derived from these

This list is by no means exhaustive. Each yeast will impart its own unique
characteristic to the mead. Champagne ferments out very dry and has a high
alcohol tolerance. Epernay has a fruity bouquet. Flor Sherry has a high
alcohol tolerance and contributes a flavor that goes better with sack meads.
Prise de Mousse is particularly neutral and fast-fermenting. Some yeasts
will produce noticeable levels of phenols (the throat-burning part of cough
medicine), which age out eventually in bottle conditioning but are an un-
necessary complication since there are yeasts that don't produce them.

Yeast Nutrient

Honey by itself is low in some of the nutrients that yeast need to reproduce
and quickly ferment out the mead must. Fermentation times can be measured in
months as the yeast slowly trickles along. This is a disadvantage because as
long as the fermenting mead remains sweet and low in alcohol, it is inviting
to contaminating bacteria. Mead makers can add a nutrient to help the yeast,
and normally should do so if the only fermentable ingredient is honey. Fruit,
particularly grapes, will contribute needed ingredients; thus melomels have
lesser or no requirement for nutrients. Nutrients are normally added when the
must is prepared.

There are several kinds of nutrients. Most winemaking shops will sell
various salts designed for grape musts. While this is helpful for mead,
too much can leave an astringent metallic flavor that will take months or
years in the bottle to age out. Yeast extract, pulverized yeast, is also
available. Dead yeast are exploded ultrasonically or in a centrifuge, and
sold as a powder. Yeast extract will not leave the same metallic flavors
as nutrients, but may be more difficult to find. It is not possible to
make your own yeast extract at home.

Fermentation

Mead will take longer than beer to ferment. Fermentation times can be
measured in months, so get another carboy. Mead likes to ferment a little
warmer than beer (70F - 80F), but should be stored in a cool place to bottle
condition. You will have to rack mead (transfer it to a separate vessel,
leaving behind the sediment) while it is fermenting. If you make any kind
of mead beside traditional, you will have to rack about a week after starting
to remove the bits of fruit and spices that settle out. Rack periodically
after that to get the mead off the dead yeast and other matter that settles
out--every 3-6 weeks depending on the rate of fermentation and settling.
This improves the flavor and clarifies the mead.

Initial fermentation of melomels made with fruit (not just juice) is easiest
in a food-grade plastic pail so that you can strain out the fruit before
racking. Except for this, glass carboys with fermentation locks are the best
fermentation vessels.

Bottling

First, you must make sure the mead has stopped fermenting. Mead is such a
slow fermenter that it may appear completely done, yet continue to ferment
after bottling. This can turn a still mead into a sparkling one; it can even
produce enough pressure to cause the bottles to explode. Exploding bottles--
"glass grenades"--aren't funny. They're unpredictable and very dangerous.

To be sure the mead is done fermenting, take hydrometer readings spanning a
week or more and be sure the readings are not still falling. Dry meads will
also finish at a gravity below 1.000. As a mead finishes, it will "fall
clear"--the initial cloudiness will settle out. Be careful, though, because
being clear is not enough.

Choose appropriate bottles for the type of mead. Sparkling mead (carbonated,
like champagne) will require a sturdy bottle, either sparkling wine (which
are thick enough to take the higher carbonation) or returnable beer bottles.
Beer bottles should be crown-capped. Sparkling wine bottles can be corked if
you use champagne corks and wire them down. American sparkling-wine bottles
can be crown-capped just as beer bottles can. European sparkling-wine bottles
cannot be reliably crown-capped--they have a crown-cap lip, but it's the wrong
size for standard caps.

Still meads (uncarbonated, like normal wines) may be bottled in regular wine
bottles with standard corks, or in crown-capped bottles as above. Since
pressure isn't an issue, almost any bottle with an airtight closure can be
made to work. Bear in mind, though, that the appearance of your bottles is
part of the first impression when you serve your mead.

Mead that has finished fermentation and is then bottled will be "still"
(flat). Sparkling mead is "primed" by adding a small amount of sugar at
bottling time to produce a short renewed fermentation so that it is carbon-
ated. For predictable results (again, to avoid "glass grenades"), you should
first let the mead finish fermenting in the carboy, then add just the amount
of sugar needed to carbonate it. Bottling a mead before it finished ferment-
ing (in hopes of capturing just the right amount of carbonation in the bottle)
can lead to under- or over-carbonation, and even in the best case won't give
the mead a chance to finish clearing before bottling. A normal amount of
priming sugar is about 4 ounces by weight for five gallons.

Store the bottles in a cool dark place. Mead is not as sensitive as beer to
light (unless you have hops in it), but should not be left in bright light.

Wassail!

While reading the mead-lovers digest you will occasionally see the word
"Wassail". It's a toast, an expression of good will, much as a beer drinker
might offer "Prosit" or "Cheers". The word derives from Old Norse through
Middle English, and means "be healthy". The dictionary lists two pronun-
ciations (wahs'ul, wah-sale').

Legality

In the USA, mead is classified as a wine. A brief, informal (not legal
advice!) synopsis: Federal regulations allow an adult to make up to 100
gallons a year, or 200 gallons per year per household of two or more
adults, for personal or family use, with no tax or license required. It
may not be sold. Concentration (including but not limited to distilla-
tion) is prohibited. State and local laws may impose additional restric-
tions, so check first. The usual situation is that home mead-making is
allowed in any locality where commercial wine can be sold. Repeat: this
is NOT legal advice.

Other Topics and Further Reading

In addition to the Mead Lover's Digest there are some related forums you may
find interesting. The forums and their subscription addresses are:

When you're just learning a new hobby, it always helps to find other, more
experienced folks, both for guidance and to join "the community." Check for
homebrew clubs in your area; they often have subgroups interested in mead.

Beyond this basic information you should refer to recipes and further reading
for details on how to make mead. Thanks to the gracious efforts of Stephen
Hansen, we have a mead archive site.
The archives are:

Books and Other Sources of Information (a partial list)

The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby, Knight, Opened

1669. A transcription of the beverage recipes (over 100, mostly meads)
portion of this book may be ordered from the International Bee Research
Association:
International Bee Research Association (IBRA)
[address was formerly listed in Cardiff, Wales; more recent information
suggests London but gives no specific address]
Copies may also be obtained from the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)
in the states. You might try rec.org.sca for pointers.